Sunday, July 29, 2012

There’s
a lot to be said for positive thinking. The Bible even tells us to think on the
good things. That’s the pithy version of Philippians 4:8, which says, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (KJV)

We also read in Proverbs 3:7 - For as he thinkethinhis heart, so is he… (KJV)

So
we know that what we think about is very important, even to God. But does what
we think override what God says? Never.

I
know a man that thinks that when his life is over he will simply cease to
exist. He regularly tells me that he’s just not going to think about whether
there’s an afterlife or not. “Whatever is going to happen, will happen,” he
says.

But
God, in His wisdom, allows us to choose what will happen. His Word spells it
all out quite clearly. Joshua 24:15 starts out - And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the LORD, choose you
this day whom ye will serve… (KJV)

Like
the man of God in the pulpit last Sunday said, you can deal with this, or you
can deal with that. You can deal with what God requires of you, or you can deal
with eternal damnation.

To
say this isn’t fair is to not look at the big picture. Humankind sins against
the God that created us. The penalty for sin is death and eternal punishment.
But God in His mercy provided as escape from that penalty; He sent His Son Jesus
to bare our punishment for us. He didn’t have to do that, but His love for us
compelled Him.

Just
thinking nice thoughts about a pleasant afterlife, or that there is no
afterlife at all, isn’t enough to secure peace for your spirit. Your spirit
lives forever – somewhere. You get to choose where.

Friday, July 20, 2012

So,
those stones, or bricks, of which we speak, are made up of our own sin –
requiring repentance, and of the sins of others – requiring forgiveness. What
else might they be made of or cut from?

If
I grow up thinking my neighbor hates me because she never comes out to see me
or play with me, but the reality of it is that she’s got some sickness I know
nothing about that keeps her housebound, what can we call the material that
makes up this brick? I call it deception. It wasn’t the neighbor girl that deceived
me, it was lack of knowledge.

When
I think I know everything, or enough about a matter to form an opinion or
belief about it, I might be ripping myself off.

We
can never know enough about God and His Word; this is why we’re instructed to
stay in His Word continually. About the time we think we “know it all”
deceptions come in like an avalanche and it commonly looks like confusion or
loss or the belief of an outright lie.

That
(imaginary) neighbor girl had no intention to deceive me; I created the deception in my own mind. Enlightenment about
her sickness could have saved me from those feelings of rejection.

We
can apply this on a broad scale and we can shine it into the smallest
deceptions in our lives.

Just
a few of the scriptures that speak to us of the lack of knowledge or sense,
include:

Proverbs
10:21 The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of sense.

Isaiah
5:13 Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; those of
high rank will die of hunger and the common people will be parched with thirst.

Hosea
4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected
knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of
your God, I also will ignore your children.

And
Proverbs 29:18 tells us: Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he
that keepeth the law, happy is he.– And
without the knowledge of the things of God, any vision we have is askew.

So
once again, I’m going to point us back to God’s Word; back to reading, listening
to and obeying God’s Word. There we will gain the knowledge we need to see as
much of the picture as we need to see in order to not be deceived and to
uncover the deceptions already in place. This is where we’ll learn to
prosper and live lives pleasing to God.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

So,
some of the bricks in our walls represent the sin in our lives. Those are tough
ones to disassemble. But we can do it.

Other
bricks in our walls represent the sins of others. When we sin, we aren’t the
only ones affected by that sin. Our sin affects everyone around us, whether we
realize it or not. Yes, even our secret sins. Just as when others sin,
sometimes we’re the one in the fallout.

So
to pull out those bricks, we need the essential key of forgiveness. I’ve
written about this before, but it keeps resonating in my heart, so I’ll keep
writing about it. Maybe it’s more for me than you.

Matthew
6:14 & 15 tell us, For if ye forgive men their trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you:But if ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses. (KJV)

Matthew
14:21 & 22 go on to say, Then came Peter to him, and said,
Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven
times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until
seventy times seven. (KJV)

Forgiving is a big deal to God. He mercifully forgives
and expects us to do likewise. Even the familiar prayer many of us say from
memory indicates that we already know this when we declare: …and forgive us our
debts/trespasses/sins…as we forgive others… If God were only as forgiving as we
are, we’d all burn in hell forever.

But forgiving comes easy to God, we contend. Thank God
for His mercy, but our sin grieves Him far more than the sins of others grieve
us. Not so, you say? While it is accurate to say that the sins of others can
cripple us, suck us down into victimhood and torment our minds. They can
sometimes scar us physically and emotionally. They can haunt us, playing out in
our memories over and over again. Believe me, I know.

But Jesus says, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I
am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John
10:10 KJV) This is why He lovingly instructs us to forgive those who have
sinned against us; to set us free to live abundantly!

Forgiveness
is not giving permission to anyone to hurt you or take advantage of you time
and time again. Forgiveness does not suggest that what they’ve done is okay.
Forgiveness says nothing about what they’ve done – but everything about who you
are. Forgiveness set you free to knock down a few more of the bricks in your
walls.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

We
weren’t born knowing everything we’ll need to know and armed with all the
weapons we’ll use in warfare. Even Jesus learned (Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased
in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. KJV) But everything we
need is already made available to us through God’s Word and His Holy Spirit.
But it’s our responsibility to “study to shew thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word
of truth” – 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV

We need to
read from God’s Word daily and ask Him to reveal its secrets to us; secrets
that are not hidden from us, but for us.

Many have
gone before us and share their insight through speaking engagements and books.
I’m reading several books at once and will attempt to share what I’m learning.
(I’ll reference any books I quote.) Demolishing these walls will take time and
effort on our part, but it doesn’t have to drain our strength and consume the
rest of our lives. God has purpose for us in wholeness, that’s where He wants
us.

To establish
a firm foundation in Christ, in Whom is found true freedom from the confines of
those walls we’ve erected over time, we want to dive into scripture and
discover the basis for that firm foundation.

In 2 Timothy
2:19 we read: Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one
that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (KJV)

So, the first, and for many of us, the hardest thing we
need to do is depart from iniquity. What does that mean? According to www.dictionary.com
the word iniquity means: 1) gross injustice or wickedness. 2) a violation of a
right or duty; wicked act; sin. For the purpose of this blog post, I’ll whittle
that down to say that we need to depart from sin. That same source tells us
that the word, depart, means: 1) to go away; leave. 2) to diverge or deviate.
3) to pass away, as from life or existence: die. Clearly God wants us to “go
away” from sin; to “die” to sin; but I took a better look at the word diverge.
It means: 1) to
move, lie, or extend in different directions from a common point; branch off. 4) to turn aside or deviate, as from a
path, practice, or plan.

Clearly we
are to turn aside from, deviate from, move in a different direction from, go
away from and/or die to – the practice of sin.

Some of us
might be blinded enough to think we don’t sin. Let’s see what the Bible says
about that.

Romans
3:23 says, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

1
John 1:8 says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Verse 10 goes on to say, If we say that
we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (KJV)

1
John 2:9 says, He that saith he is in the light, and hateth
his brother, is in darkness even until now.(KJV)

But praise be
to God for 1 John 1:9, which says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(KJV)

So many of us claim to be Christians but continue in
our sin. It make us look bad, and it makes God look bad to a world looking for
answers, as if His grace and mercy are for nothing, as though He doesn’t really
save or heal.

All of the bricks in our walls are not there because
of our sin. But some of them are cut straight out of the rocks of sin we allow
to continue in our lives. Take heed to 1 John 1:9 – get those sins confessed
and repent of them; turn away from them; depart from them; refuse to give them
place in your life for another minute. Will it be easy or automatic? Nope. We’ll
need God’s help. Most of what He requires of us depends on Him and the power He
gives us for the asking.

None of the promises in the Bible are ours if we don’t
depart from sin.

Friday, July 6, 2012

So
these walls that seem to bounce our prayers back to us as though they never
pierced the heavenlies, what do they look like and how do we tear them down?

I
can only write from my perspective and the things I believe God has shown me.
You have your own journey, your own discoveries and revelations and promises to
cherish. I hope you’ll share them with those you love. Seldom is revelation to
be kept secret, we cannot hide our light under a basket; we’re instructed to
let it shine.

The
love God fills us with is none other than His own love. He professes love
because He IS love. This love doesn’t cause an illumination around us that’s
merely an inch or two deep, the light of this love radiates all the way from
one soul to another and back.

One
plan of the enemy is to convince us to keep to ourselves, that our lives are no
one else’s business and their lives are none of our business; all foolishness
and lies.

It’s
easy for Satan to convince us to keep to ourselves in a society that breeds
interaction through electronic means. It’s easy to hide our feelings behind a
computer screen. But there is give and take via the internet. There can even be
a degree of intimacy. The written word is powerful. Forgiveness can be
extended, encouragement can be given, and sorrow can be related, we can
entertain, we can uplift and teach, we can share prayers and needs, all through
social media. Time and thoughts can be shared quite well over long distances, but
generally speaking, we can love more intimately through touch.

The
people we surround ourselves with on a daily basis either know we have nothing
to give them, or have the privilege of receiving the love of God we share. If
we’re not sharing it, there can only be two reasons why: 1) We haven’t received
it 2) We’ve been deceived into believing our love isn’t good enough to share.
If you’ve received God’s love, it is the only love truly worth sharing.

We
all have comfort zones, but I believe we sometimes use them as invisible safety
nets. Of course, when the Holy Spirit of God nudges us to proceed with caution,
there is trouble ahead. But hiding from awkward situations or circumstances
that create an obvious uneasiness because we’re afraid or feel we’re unequipped
to face them means we’ve not taken the necessary time to prepare ourselves for
the missions God’s placed in our way. God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips
those He calls, and I don’t believe you’d be reading this if He hadn’t called
you.

I
plan to share new blog posts in this series every other day to keep this train
of thought moving forward and not overwhelm anyone with thousands of words in
one single post. So stay tuned for more.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

It’s
funny; sometimes you pray and know you’ve heard from God. Other times, you’re
not even in prayer and God speaks to you and you recognized Him. But sometimes
you travail in prayer and feel as though you’ve run into a brick wall, as
though God’s not listening and you may begin to wonder if He’s really even
there. We’re so fickle.

That
brick wall is ours. God didn’t place it there. We’ve built it up over time.
Each brick is a lie we’ve believed. Eventually the wall becomes sizeable, looking
insurmountable. We built it up – and we need to tear it down.

But
God doesn’t leave us to our own devices. He clearly tells us that “there’s a
way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
(Proverbs 16:25 KJV)

He
provides the key to every problem, the solution for every riddle, instructions
for removing every brick in the wall. We need to search out His Word, and learn
it, knowing it’s good and profitable.

There
are effective ways to pull down the wall that hinders our communication with
God, which threatens our faith in God. Though it can be a very intimidating
wall with a commanding presence, it can crumble like the Walls of Jericho.
Surely the Israelites thought God’s instruction for bringing that wall down
were silly, too. But it led them to victory. Plans they created on their own
may have sounded more practical but, if in direct mocking and opposition to God’s
direction, they’d have failed miserably; their way would have led to death.

Before
you can submit yourself (your heart; mind, will and emotions, your body, your
family, your finances, your health and all that makes you who you are) to God
and His Ways, you’ll first need to choose to do so, and then follow through. So
whatever it takes for you to come to a place to make this decision, get on your
knees and wrestle it out with God.

I’ll
follow this up with some biblical instructions for tearing down the walls that
if left untouched, will eventually wind up imprisoning us, where, if left
alone, despair would take our hope – then our lives.